ORATION: 



DELIVERED JULY 4th, 1836, 



BEFORE THE 



SOCIAL UNION SOC I ET Y 



OF AMHERST COLLEGE 



BY E'. H. KELLOGG, 

A MEMBER OP THE SOCIETY, 



AMHERST: 
J. S. & C. ADAMS, Print 
1836. 



.AH 



.»r,*^ 



ORATION 



It is not to be supposed that American citizens of any class, 
are indifferent to the Fourth of July. It does not become 
them to suffer any occupation, or any multiplicity of business, 
to hush up the story that the Anniversary calls to mind. The 
more deeply and profitably we are engrossed in present pursuits, 
the more earnestly are we called upon, by the common impulses 
6f gratitude, to remember on this day our fathers. While the 
^aspect of our wide country so richly abounds with tokens of 
plenty and the signs of happiness, a dutiful regard for them 
calls upon the husbandman to stay his plough in the furrow, 
the mechanic to leave his tools untouched, the student to 
quit his study, the manufacturer to permit the hum of the 
spindle and the play of the loom to cease, the tradesman to 
close his doors, and the sailor-boy to set his stars and stripes 
fluttering on high to every breeze that sweeps the ocean ; in 
honor of the birth-day of the nation. 

The tide of prosperity is fast carrying the nation away from 
the scenes of its infancy, and we should seize upon the lessons 
of the Great Epoch, and bear them on with us triumphantly 
above the flood, for our own safety and the good of coming 
generations. How fast are the men of those times dropping 
away ! How few of us now have an aged grandsire who ' listed 
during the war,' whose eye we may behold rekindle with its 
ancient fire as his voice trembles with the stirring story ! More 



and more thrilling comes every knell that announces the depar- 
ture of another spirit of the Old Revolutionary Army. Like 
children watching the breathings of a dying father, the nation 
feels that e ve ry peal brings nearer and nearer the aching void. 
Still the rev^^ttsurvivors, tottering over the grave even, look 
out upon our happy country, and thank God that their own 
eyes rest upon a scene far outrunning their flightiest hopes in- 
dulged in those times when hope was the only indulgence. 
And how happy are these illustrious few, if they can interest the 
young, busy, thoughtless American in the scenes that tried 
them so faithfully ! Ah ! the grey-headed old men still speak 
of the nineteenth of April, and the seventeenh of June, with- 
out mentioning the year. They suppose that their sons must 
feel as they feel ; must we say that they are mistaken ? Not a 
soldier in the war, but knew that it was the hope alone of bring- 
ing the blessings of liberty to every door that nerved each arm 
throughout the protracted contest ; and he might well expect 
that those who were to reap the fruits, would bear his deeds in 
grateful remembrance. The greater and happier we become as 
a nation, the greater is our debt of gratitude. Our population 
is now about five fold, and our wealth probably thirty fold, as 
great as they were in 1780, and the change only attests the val- 
ue of the institutions founded by our fathers. However fast 
we may settle our lands, however incessant may be the tide of 
immigration, however often we-may double the 'Old Thirteen,' 
we shall not escape the protection of those institutions. As 
the waters when they roll into the sea, are under the same name, 
so are we under the same great shield. Every American son 
should know to whom and for what he is so deeply indebted. 
Every village and hamlet should know, that every other village 
and hamlet in the world are not as happy as themselves. The 
blood of our fathers is not satisfied with the thank-offerings of 
those who stand upon the ground they trod ; it cries to the 
prosperous millions beyond the mountains, that, as they journey 



up in ceaseless succession those great arms of the Mississippi, 
with which she grasps the roots of the Rocky Mountains, 
and there under the over-shadowing wings of peace, plant** 
the happy abodes of civilization ; they will awaken the 
mountain echoes with their morning guns, and pour the songs of 
freedom over their ocean-like prairies, on every return of the 
Great Anniversary Festival. 

It were for the good of the patriotism, the liberty, the 
morality of the nation, if all its citizens were to suiFer the 
noise and the passion that wealth and prosperity has introduced 
to die away with the going down of the preceding sun, and rise 
on the morn of the Fourth with hearts full of gratitude to God, 
and that band, not of military, but citizen heroes, who through 
so much expense of treasure, amount of suffering, and profusion of 
blood, were permitted to achieve our Independence. Let them 
also sieze upon the fleeting incidents of those eventful times, as 
they escape from those tongues, coming alas ! too fast under the 
seal of eternal silence, and fix them on the page of the history 
of Liberty in this country, with a brightness and precision, that 
shall carry gladness to the hearts of all her future worshippers. 
We intend that chronologists shall not have so much debatea- 
ble ground about the time of the origin of the free states of 
modern times, as those of ancient times ; the Grecian states, viz. 
one thousand years. 

If it is the duty of all American citizens to become thus 
interested in the early condition of the country, it may be 
reasonably expected that those who may be supposed to be 
better acquainted with subjects of historical interest, will give 
that of the Revolution the first place in their minds. If the 
principles of the American Revolution are the ones destined to 
prevail over the world, it is time they were lifted into view, as 
if in the arch of the sky, in their original beauty, and matchless 
integrity. Those principles never have, under the light of any 
events, and never will, under any combination of circumstances, 



reveal so distinctly their benign features, as in the blaze itself 
of the Revolution. That lamp should light them to the eyes 
^hich shall seek them for all time to come. For it is hazard- 
ing nothing to say that future ages will look back upon the his- 
tory of the quarter of a century between 1765 and 1790 with 
an intenser gaze than upon that of any other twenty -five years 
that the flight of time has revealed. True, those times will 
have gone far, they are retreating fast into the dimness of dis- 
tance ; but the men who acted in those scenes are coming forth, 
they shall come forth, as the stars when day departs, into brighter 
and bolder relief. It were strange if, with such illustrious and 
immortal founders, and in a day of such light and knowledge, 
the infancy of the nation did not shine in the bright light of his- 
tory, and her storehouse of recollections were not well sup- 
plied. 

We are no longer bound to pay undivided praise to little 
old Attica. Though we acknowledge her Athena, and promise 
always to call her Queen in letters and the arts ; yet the 
world looks to us for models in erecting the temples of liberty. 
A modern Greece has sprung from the wilds of America, not 
without her heroic exploits, not without her scenes of Epic 
grandeur, not without her adornments of civilization. While 
therefore we ring our changes on Marathon and Thermopyle, 

The battle-fields where Persia's victim horde 
First bowed beneath the brunt of Hella's sword ; 

let us consider the Marathons and Thermopyles that rise full 
oft to view from the heights of Abraham to southern Charleston, 
embracing in their blood-stained bosoms, the bones of heroes 
who met the Persian, not only in a single fight, but who defended 
their soil against him for seven years. And when we allow 
ourselves to be thrilled, transported, caught up, by the victori- 
ous power of that tongue that 

Shook the Arsenal, and fulmined over Greece, 
To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne ; 



Let us give ear to the trumpet blasts of our mother tongue as 
they come over our plains and among our liills from the breath 
of an Otis, a Henry, an Adams, and a Lee. Or if we would 
listen to him. 

Who firmly good in a corrupted state, 
Against the rage of tyrants stood 
Invincible ! 

While he discourses of the probability of there being a God in 
Heaven ; let us turn and see the head of a great nation, civil 
and military, trusting in Providence for the issue of a righteous 
cause. 

But it is yielding but halting praise to the memory of our 
forefathers, to confess ourselves gratified with the valor, patience 
in suffering, and love of liberty they displayed ; or to amuse 
ourselves in comparing them with other characters in history. 
'T is not enough to turn a listless gaze upon the barren order of 
occurrences during the Revolution. The picture and the prin- 
ciples of that great drama should appear enstamped upon the 
heart of every American, at home and abroad, both now and for- 
ever; and ere that takes place.those entablatures must be warmed 
by the heart of her fires. Let the mind gain ' a countermarch of 
time ' and notice the events as they arise, — when the petitions 
began to lift their suppliant voices to the royal ear against the 
portentous change in the colonial policy at the close of the Old 
French War, when those voices grew louder upon the royal re- 
fusal of relief, when those same voices came upon that same 
royal ear in the harsher tones of remonstrance against the as- 
serted right ' to bind us in all cases whatsoever,' when odious 
laws once repealed, were re-enacted, and Americans began to 
pledge their faith to rely upon their own soil, already becoming 
dear to them, for sustenance and comfort, when they found de- 
tachments of the British standing army quartered amongst them, 
when a wicked and revengeful enactment shut up one of our 



8 

most important seaports, challenging the united resistance of 
the continent, when the industrious citizens began to look about 
for means of defence, and the war-cry ran through the whole 
country ; in short, when the mighty fleets of Great Britian 
floated her deadly armies up to our peaceful coasts, throwing the 
disciplined hordes into all our great cities to riot, plunder, and 
kill, and pouring their destructive thunder into our weak defen- 
ces, while the glittering ranks of the British veteran and plaided 
Highlander are dashing off, in bold manoeuvres, under the eager 
lion to subdue the rebel colonists, the mercenary German 
stealing his night marches, the ' blue-eyed Brunswickers ' thread- 
ing the northern wildernesses to cut oif New England from the 
sister colonies, the plumed savage darting down from the moun- 
tain with the scalping knife, or springing from the valley with 
his tomahawk ; let also the question be asked, if this chivalry 
of the European wars and American barbarity can be stayed by 
the few resolute yeomanry repairing to the meagre lines of the 
'American army, the husband with knapsack and musket leaving 
his weeping wife and staring little ones scarcely provided with 
the necessaries of life, the son breaking away from his widowed 
mother and tearful sisters, to go and die where his father died, 
every town, village, and family most beseechingly called upon 
to furnish heavy contributions and enlistments for the army ; 
every soldier fighting on unpaid, except by the useless securi- 
ties of the poor continental Congress, still obeying the repeated 
calls of his beloved Washington, and that sentiment that no ter- 
rors of earth shall shake in his heart, the love of liberty : — 
more than all, let the ear be given to the tones of the great con- 
troversy as they ring across the waters, while the declarations 
of covetous power, are triumphantly met by the denouncers of 
unconstitutional taxation, while the ambitious pretensions of the 
cunning English Cabinet are boldly exploded by the unheard of 
statesman of America, while asking grows into demand and re- 
fusal into defiance, until the menacing thunders of St. Stephens 



and the spirit-moving cries for truth and justice from Fanueil Hall, 
from Congress Hall, and from Williamsburgh, meet in angry tu- 
mult above the ocean ; the battling of the antagonist principles 
of the Old and New World. 

It is thought by some an objection to the exercises usually 
had on these occasions, that they tend to keep alive unfriendly 
feelings towards the mother country. The spontaneous inclin- 
ation of the national feeling should not be checked by such a 
scruple. Besides, appropriate commemorations of the exploits 
of our fathers are nowise inconsistent with the purest sentiments 
of amity and courtesy towards England. The untutored feel- 
ing of the English nation, ere it was warped by misrepresenta- 
tion and inflamed to resentment by ministerial appeals, was un- 
doubtedly in favor of the American cause. The reproach of 
those measures that drove us into the arms of independence, 
falls, not on the English nation, but upon a few men then in 
power, whose sentiments, we are justified in saying, have always 
leaned too much towards that line of policy by which they 
attempted to ruin our prosperity. We may be pardoned then, 
if we do occasionally, through indirect means, send through our 
well known neighbors' bosoms, the old unpleasant sensation. 
But this class of the English people do not so much apprehend 
the revival of revolutionary hostility, as they fear the growing 
fame of institutions in dangerous proximity to their own. Amer- 
icans should not become propagandists. The only way in 
which their institutions will operate effectually upon the world, is 
through the happiness with which they are seen to clothe the 
people. But it becomes Americans to see to it, that the vulgar 
prejudices of the old world do not decry them prematurely. I 
know of no sentiment of courtesy that requires the friends of 
American institutions to bow deferentially to the lumbering 
trumpery heaped up by feudal barbarism, to the eternal anoy- 
ance of liberty. And while we would not attempt to force any 
influence upon the anti -republican states, we are bound to vindi- 
2 



10 

cate our character and just fame ; to set forth the true nature of 
our institutions, before crowned heads as well as the lowly born. 
If this be done, we need not fear for the result. France, 
Spain, Portugal, the South American Republics, have they not 
turned and overturned, and struggled, some of them, in seas of 
blood for the priceless heritage that we possess in comparative 
security ? 

Let Americans then fear not to rejoice on the return of the 
day in which they escaped from colonial vassallage, because 
Felix may tremble. The Tory party in England ought to 
know that it is fit on such occasions, to help to consign their 
course of policy to a damning fame. The dependencies of 
Great Britain have always received oppression at their hands. 
The unworthy selfishness, the life-blood of the party, ever im- 
pelled them on to desperate undertakings to gratify a few at home 
at the expense of the many abroad. Do they want proof? 
Let them listen to the wailing of millions, as it booms up from 
the deep interior of India ; the victims of pillage, extortion, and 
sometimes, the besom of war. Lo 1 too the meagre arm 
of Ireland, upraised for ages in touching, though useless, petition 
to be relieved from the desolation that envious, ungenerous, cruel 
laws have carried over her beautiful isle. Above all, see the 
ruinous system that they attempted to impose on colonial Amer- 
ica ; though against the loud, incessant, and eloquent remonstran- 
ces of the confessedly great and good men of the English na- 
tion. So bold, so unexpected, were their odious measures ; that 
Americans were not more alarmed for their liberties, than sur- 
prised that such men should beat the head of the nation, 
and that such folly should be put into their counsels. But the 
tables were turned against them. And may we not suppose 
that, were our fathers amongst us, they would deem it a fit oc- 
casion to rejoice that the principles for which they contended, 
are not only working a sure progress in the institutions of the 
mother country, but that they promise ere long» in their trium- 



11 

phant career, to bless their brethren in England with the full 
possession of their long, long, lost rights. 

But without balancing consequences, we know that such a 
debt of gratitude never rested upon a people, as upon us. To 
discharge that debt, is right in the eyes of the universe. And 
we feel it to be any thing but a compliment to our character, to 
suppose that we are so dead to the noblest feeling that adorns 
humanity, as to fail in its discharge for fear of some collateral 
evil arising from its misinterpretation. Men, not so worthy as 
our fathers, are embalmed in our memories. Exploits, of less 
interest to humanity than the Revolution, receive our contin- 
ued regard. If the civilized world has ever paid its trib- 
ute of admiration to the Spartan * three hundred ' who wish- 
ed the monument attesting their fall, might only say to the 
traveller, ' Go ; passenger, tell at Sparta that we died here in 
obedience to her laws;' laws, which, while they reared the 
promising child into a bold, lion-b^arted, soldier, look the weak 
one from the arms of its mother and threw it to the wild beasts 
on Taygetus ;— if the English people still gaze with rapture on 
the consecrated banners of Cressy and Agincourt, and glow 
with pride at the names of Nile and Trafalgar ; how should we 
cling to the memory of our fathers who fouglit, not because they 
had been educated to fight; who bled, not to boast of their 
scars ; who marched, not because they were commanded by an 
unseen power for unknown reasons ; who died, not because they 
had learned to be reckless of death ; but who fought because 
they could not be oppressed by foreign legislation ; because they 
wanted a free home for their wives and children, because they 
hoped, though many must fall, some might survive ; and be- 
cause they chose to meet the contest for liberty when it offered, 
and not shuffle it off on to us their children. 

On the twelfth of June Gen. Gage has declared the whole 
province of Massachusetts Bay to be in a state of rebellion, but 
invites the people to return to their allegiance, and offers his 



12 

Majesty's most gracious pardon to all who will receive it, ' ex- 
cepting from the benefit of such pardon ' says the proclamation 
* Samuel Adams and John Hancook, whose crimes are of too 
flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that 
of condign punishment.' And is this so ? Has Massachusetts 
found reason to rebel against England whose cause she but yes- 
terday so cheerfully espoused, and whose arms she sustained 
with her blood and treasure ? Is she now ready to fight the 
mother country, with whose troops she lately marched, shoulder 
to shoulder, a greater proportion of her citizens than France 
poured out at the call of her Napolean ? Will not this rebellious 
member of the family be immediately opposed by those distin- 
guished leaders, Putnam, Stark, Gates, Montgomery, Lee, 
Washington, who have carried the British arms triumphantly 
against the Frenchman and Indian, from the St. Lawrence to 
the Gulf of Mexico ? 

This proclamation was issued about two months after the 
affair at Lexington and Concord. That occurrence had con- 
vinced the people that to be vigilant, and ready, was their only 
safety. Gen. Gage having learned that a few military stores 
are collected together eighteen or twenty miles from Boston, 
bethinks himself that it will be a pleasant excursion for seven 
or eight hundred of his stately grenadiers, to run out under 
cover of night, destroy the stores, and in the morning, march 
back to Boston in their blazing regimentals, to the great admira- 
tion of the much surprised inhabitants. And indeed what is 
likely to defeat the well-planned expedition ? Officers have 
been sent out on the roads to cut off all possible communication 
of the plan to the country towns. Darkness throws her man- 
tle over city and country. Late in the evening the gay regu- 
lars march out of the streets of Boston full of the soldier's an- 
ticipations. They move silently over the waters. They land 
in hushed stillness. See them glide along on the road past the 
houses, with wary tread and muffled drum. What now shall 



13 

prevent the destruction of those stores and perhaps the confla- 
gration of the town ! Who will rescue those patriots of the 
Provincial Congress, now asleep in their beds at Lexington, and 
already named for the halter ! Oh ! might not an alarm be 
somehow given ? Yes, yes, the royal Governor's determina- 
tion was well known before sunset. The whisper has run 
through the villages to Lexington. The alarm guns have spread 
the tidings. The bells have taken them up and rung them 
from the steeples around all the towns ; and the quick roll of the 
drum has already called the militia on to the lines in the streets 
of Lexington and Concord. 

Those troops do commence their return march on the morn- 
ing of the nineteenth, 'that glorious morn for America,' which 
they had fondly hoped would bring them into such high gusto 
with the gazing villagers. But it reveals to them spectators 
with quite another object in view than to gratify curiosity. 
They discover the unending ranks of a foe whose singular mil- 
itary arrangements they do not understand, and whose order of 
battle they cannot possibly comprehend. Thus unexpectedly 
perplexed, and very much impeded in their march by the wound- 
ed, and thinking continually of the one hundred comrades they 
have already left behind them dead in the road ; they would 
fain quicken their step ; the officers too would fain dismount 
and march along side of their war horses, and every now and 
then, when they think they have found the light-footed foe in 
an assailable condition, make the very useless effort to form a 
line for battle ; for say the British officers in their letters home ; 
* we attempted to stop the men and form them two deep; but 
to no purpose, the confusion rather increased than diminished. 
The rebels,' they continue, ' killed and wounded many of our 
troops by keeping up a deadly fire from behind walls, trees, ditch- 
es, and other ambushes. Those weary regulars having found 
safety in the arms of Lord Percy's reinforcement, gain with 
difficulty the heights of Charlestown by sunset, in good season, 



14 

if not to dine, yet to sup, will) his Excellency and congratulate 
bitn upon the encouragement his Majesty's troops have receiv- 
ed from their first onset upon the rebellious Yankees. 

The Provincial Congress immediately despatched to Great 
Britian a statement of the rencountre, with depositions from eye- 
witnesses, showing that the British troops were clearly the ag- 
gressors; again enumerating their wrongs, and concluding their 
paper with the emphatic language ; ' Appealing to heaven for 
the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free.' The 
feelings of the people now demanded decisive measures. The 
Congress resolved at once that an army of thirteen thou- 
sand should be raised for the defence of the Province. And 
now the old dusty drums, that sixteen years before had called 
so cheerfully the British soldier and American militiaman to- 
gether to the battle field on the North Western Frontier ; are 
again heard rattling forth their merry summons among our hills, 
for every village company to repair to Boston, to ' the quick 
march step of liberty,' 

That's good to fiddle, sing, or play, 
And just the thing for fighting. 

The gathered forces encamp in the environs of Boston. And 
now the foe will no more invade us. An attack will soon drive 
them from the city that Lord North calls ' the hot bed of sedi- 
tion.' But on the left wing of our army is an eminence that 
commands the land communication with Charlestown : will not 
the safety of the inhabitants be secured if we take possession 
of that hill ? That was Bunker's hill. The next morning the 
British beheld that eminence, within cannon-shot, capped with 
an entrenchment eight rods square and four feet high. Major 
General Howe and Brigadier General Pigot resolve to cross 
Charles River and dislodge the Americans posted there. 
They land hurriedly, and hasten at the eager call to form. They 
move with deliberate step along up the hill side, every eye on 



15 

the redoubt. The militiamen within wait in silence, tlieir bo- 
soms heaving more and more with emotion, as the foe ap- 
proaches. They withhold their fire until they can pick out every 
officer and level their guns with certainty. They withhold it 
no longer. From the windows and roofs of the houses in Bos- 
ton, thousands of people are looking on in breathless anxiety. 
And now two thousand citizens are rushing out from burning 
Charleslown on to the neighboring eminences that overlook the 
scene ; some weeping, some frantic, now turning their agonized 
countenances towards the growing flames ; and now on the 
scene of action, to know what lot next God has in store for them. 
The British, twice repulsed, are again called upon to form and 
repeat the attack. They do it. But those sons of the Amer- 
ican soil are fighting, not from the recollection of their families,^ 
but from their presence. They know that those distressed wo- 
men, and children, and old men around them, hold their breaths 
at every charge of the enemy ; that they feel every fire cut 
themselves to the heart. Will they yield then, as long as they 
have the means of defence ? 

Fifteen days pass away and George Washington is on his 
way from Mount Vernon to take the lead of the army. The 
continental Congress, now in its second session, at Philadelphia, 
has thought it best, since the battles of the 19lh of April and 
17th June to take up a regular defence and have appointed a 
Commander in Chief. He is not from Massachusetts, the seat 
of the war, but every one speaks well of him and he has once 
been appointed Commander in Chief of all the Virginia forces. 
He comes escorted by very respectable volunteers, and is ac- 
companied by the gallant Major General Lee, and the accom- 
plished MifSin. At Springfield, one hundred miles from Bos- 
ton, a committee from the Provincial Congress meet him and 
attend him to Cambridge, where he receives the warm congrat- 
ulations of the whole army ; and would undoubtedly be greeted 
with an animating salute if they had the gunpowder to tune the 



16 

cannon. The organization of the army is very difficult. But 
a small quantity of stores and military equipage are provided. 
The first fresh courage of the men has somewhat abated since 
the battles. The lines of the army stretch from Roxbury Neck 
around to Prospect Hill in front of Bunker's ; a crescent of twelve 
miles. Can we support such an extent of line against any at- 
tempt of the enemy, now eight thousand strong? They hold 
all the waters around Boston, all Boston Bay, with their floating 
batteries and armed vessels ; shall we not be flanked by forces 
thrown out upon any part of the coast? Shall we not give up 
the blockade and retreat where the Welsh Hills in Cambridge 
may cover our rear, and the army assume a more compact and 
defensible form ? But a retreat will disappoint, dishearten, 
the people. They expect that at least no ground will be given 
to the invaders ; that they will rather be driven from their strong 
bold if possible. Under these circumstances Gen. Washington 
would risk an attack but a council of general officers disap- 
proves the measure. The last of December draws near when 
the time of the militia drafts expires. The army is to be dis- 
banded and another recruited ; the whole line of posts also to 
be maintained ; within gunshot of the enemy. The new Com- 
mander from abroad, but great Washington, has performed no 
brilliant exploit to attach the body of the soldiery to him ; he must 
contrive to induce them to reinlist. The enemy must not by 
any means learn the naked condition of our lines. The Gen- 
eral feels the peril of his situation. Writing to Congress he 
says; 'To maintain a post within musket shot of the enemy, 
for six months together without ammunition ; and at the 
same time to disband one army and recruit another within that 
same distance of twenty British regiments, is more probably 
than was ever attempted.' 

On the seventh of June, about five months after the evacua- 
tion of Boston by the British, a member rises in his place in the 
Congress at Philadelphia, and, instructed so to do by the Virgin- 



IT 

ia Assembly, offers a resolution declaring the colonies free and 
independant states. Are the care-worn countenances of those 
patriots, chosen for their wisdom from three millions of people, 
turned suddenly towards the member in surprise ? Oh no, the 
great subject has weighed long and heavily on the minds of the 
most resolute. They have already corresponded for some time 
with members of the Provincial Legislature on this topic. They 
have held earnest conversation with each other for many a still 
hour of the night. They have foretold to each other that the 
course of the British ministry was fast preparing the people for 
this step. They have rejoiced to hear of the Virginia instruc- 
tions. And their countenances tell of a deep, delightful, sensa- 
tion thrilling each bosom as Mr. Lee pronounces the words of 
the resolution. Their hearts leap forth to welcome it : for they 
feel perplexed, having been one year in arms against Great 
Britian in the character of her subjects, and they fear the whole 
world must soon call them rebels ; they think too, that the moth- 
er country will treat with them on better terms as an indepen- 
dant nation than as repenting rebels; they are afraid also that a 
part of the people have already received too deep injuries to 
forget, and will be liable to ill-advised risings, and to become the 
victims of some designing leader; that the blood of those mas- 
sacred at Lexington and Concord, and of the brave who fell at 
Bunker's hill, will not let them settle down as contended sub- 
jects; that the blood of Warren, in his own words ' crying from 
the ground ' will startle them from their inglorious slumbers ; 
and they hope the measure, by opening free trade with all the 
world, will bring those important commercial places, now so im- 
patient under non-importation and non-consumption covenants, 
more heartily to espouse their cause ; they think they could en- 
courage the army with the prospect of ample funds from the 
public lands ; that they could form alliances with foreign nations ; 
and they are animated with the prospect of these colonies hav- 
ing their interests at their own disposal, 
3 



18 

On the other hand the more moderate would pause. They 
cannot but start back sometimes when they attempt to scan the 
prospect that this step will unveil. The army of defence has 
now been out one year, and the enemy on the coast is as fear^ 
less as ever ; the expedition we sent off so confidently against 
Canada, has entirely failed. Our Montgomery has fallen where 
he saw Wolf fall ; more fleets and more armies are this moment 
on their way from Great Britian ; the Howes in all probability 
will soon offer terms of some kind for reconciliation, if we do 
not fall in with them we know they are determined to send 
more fleets and more armies ; their resources are inexhaustible, 
while our army is now alarmingly distressed, the service very 
materially impaired for want of pay ; we can raise no taxes, that 
power rests in the hands of the colonial legislatures ; still we 
have already issued paper to the alarming amount of five mil- 
lions, giving our word that the colonies will redeem it in the pro- 
portion we assign them ; they trust us now, but can we long 
keep up such unusual confidence ; will they not fall out among 
themselves about this matter? The empirical experiments we 
made to regulate the prices of provisions have proved absurd ; 
two or three colonies have signified their opposition to this meas- 
ure by instructing their delegates here not to listen to it ; dissat- 
isfaction and distrust will grow with the growth of these burdens, 
and who can discover the end of them ? We shall fall to pie- 
ces through division ; the enemy will not fail to seize on this 
state of things to madly overrun the country ; the chains of op- 
pression will be drawn still tighter on our children, when we, 
who are thus leading the country on, shall have been taken and 
brought to an ignominious death on the scaffold : is it reasonable 
then, is it wise, is it right, in the name of heaven is it right, for 
gentlemen to say that our children will thank us for passing a 
resolution pregnant with such consequences ? It was a great 
question ; those great and good men felt their hearts oppressed 
with the sense of their situation. They reasoned, they weigh- 



19 

ed, they counciled together, they prayed to God. They in- 
dulged in no hghtness of mind, in no flighty speeches. They 
felt that they could not 

Charm ache with air, or agony with words. 

Day after day passes away. Continued reflection proves favora- 
ble to the Resolution. Those members who, in debating upon the 
subject at first, had seemed to themselves to speak with halters 
about their necks, began to appear more cheerful. The senti- 
ment of the nation seemed responding clearly to the resolution. 
The restrictive instructions were withdrawn from the delegates. 
The feeling verged towards unanimity, and after twentyseven 
days of such deliberation, they gave their hands and their hearts 
for the resolution. This is the return of that day. Who does 
not love to be, who does not thank God that he is, in its light ; 
the light of its sixtieth dawn, and America what she is ; free, 
prosperous, powerful, happy, honored all over the world I 

Six days after the declaration of Independence, the eyes of 
the nation were turned towards Sandy Hook off New York. 
Admiral lord Howe, Commander of all British ships on the 
American station, was there standing up to the Narrows with 
his proud fleet, as if already on the wings of victory. The 
British attacking army was twenty-four thousand strong. Gen. 
Washington, by the advice of Congress and the general officers 
had agreed to try to keep possession of New York, manifest- 
ly the destined rendezvous of the enemy. The Declaration 
had been read to the army with their most hearty consent. 
Still the eye of the General quickly discovers alarming difficul- 
ties in the way. The passages of the North and East rivers, 
being so important, and the islands between him and the eneiny, 
must be defended. He must divide his forces so as to man a 
line of posts stretching fifteen miles, retaining enough notwith- 
standing to repel any attack on the city. There is great need 
of arms ; two thousand men being in camp without them. The 



20 

States have not sent in their expected quotas of troops. The 
mihtiamen are unpractised. Brooklyn, opposite New York, 
must be defended ; ' and in case of an attack,' says the General 
to Congress ; * I can promise myself but one more battalion.' He 
knows be will be attacked. And his own never-failing prudence 
whispers regret at the situation into which he has suffered him- 
self to lead the army. In his addresses to the soldiers under 
the momentary expectation of an attack, he betrays more mis- 
givings as to the result than at any other time during the war. 
Writing to Congress, he says ; ' the appeal may not terminate, 
so happily as I could wish, yet the enemy will not succeed in 
their views without considerable loss. Whatever advantage 
they may gain, will I trust cost them dear.' On the 26th of 
August, the British land under cover of their ships on the south- 
western extremity of Long Island. They form in three divis- 
ions under Clinton, Grant, and D'Hester; and the noise of 
preparation reaches the Americans. The sun of the 27th arose, 
but the night had seen important movements on the part of the 
British. I pass over that day. The anguish of that blow did 
not wring the heart of Washington with more pain, than it filled 
the hearts of his countrymen with alarm. More than one 
thousand killed ; more than another thousand taken prisoners, 
with one Major and two Brigadier Generals. The troops look- 
ed about like men in trouble, and began to quit the ranks and 
march home by large parties, sometimes by whole regiments. 
Still by the advice of the general officers, the General resolves' 
to hold New York. The enemy is in possession of the East 
river and can land forces above the city. Detachments must 
be stationed as far up as White Plains to prevent invasion. In 
a few days notwithstanding, five ships are seen moving up the 
river without feeling a fire from the Arnericans, and under their 
cover three miles above the city, four thousand troops land un- 
der the brave, the too well known, General Clinton. And is the 
American army so soon to be cut to pieces ? The American 



21 

lines here, however, are capable of defence. But the men are 
apprehensive that some of the uninteUigible manoeuvres of the 
27th will be repeated. As the ships begin to throw in their fire 
they take up their retreat for New-York. They meet two brig- 
ades despatched to their assistance. They take the panic and 
all flee towards the city. They meet the Great Washington, 
whom they always love to obey, but whom, they cannot obey 
now. Those earnest calls to them, must be, are, disregarded. 
'We hear, my friends, that a great occurrence now took place : 
that Washington, Washington, faltered and trembled on the brink 
of despair. It was then, surely, it was a time that tried men's 
souls. 

A few days pass away with one defeat succeeding another, until 
fort Washington and Lee with two thousand men and very valua- 
ble stores, fall into the hands of the enemy. Behold 1 the Amer- 
ican General, with his army fleeing precipitately through the 
Jerseys, before Cornwallis. The soldiers and the people seize 
fast upon the profliered pardon of the Howes. As the fleeing 
three thousand escape from a village, they discover the van- 
guard of the pursuing army enter it. They strain for the Del- 
aware. They leap it, and seize with them as they go, the boats 
from the grasp of the enemy. But will this pleasant river 
check the impetuous race of the British army for the national 
capitol? Ah! but misfortunes are indeed sometimes blessings 
in disguise. With the recuperative energies of despair, and on 
the quick wings of new-born hope, the defeated fly into the 
midst of the enemy, and achieve the brilliant exploits of Tren- 
ton and Princeton. The confidence of the country is at once 
reassured. Congress thank the General and the whole army. 
I have no time to inquire how this great contest will finally ter- 
minate. But methinks that the hopes of this nation of patriots 
must at last be fully realized. 

For Freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, 
Though baffled oft, is ever won. 



22 

In May, 1787, the Convention met at Philadelphia, to re- 
vise the articles of the federal government. The horrors of war 
had retired from our borders and left the declaration of Indepen- 
dence most fully sustained, but no crisis in the Revolution ever 
called louder for the best efforts of the nation than the present 
arduous duties of peace. Those men who had encir61ed their 
brows with civic wreaths in councils during the war, gathered 
together there with their experience. Those, who had sur- 
rounded their names with the brightest glories of arms, had also 
come there as lawgivers. The beloved leader of the armies of 
the Revolution presided over the assembly. But the alarming 
fact was soon discovered, that the great variety of conflicting in- 
terests of a country so extended, rendered it extremely doubtful, 
whether even with their experience, with their wisdom, and 
with their patriotism, a satisfactory system could be devised. 
But they were again permitted to achieve great things, They 
sent the Federal Constitution to the States for adoption. ' That 
union had its origin in the necessities of disordered finance, pros- 
trate commerce, ruined credit.' Under its creating energies, we 
have arisien, as we have ; I cannot tell how, or to what height 
even. Look around on our great country. Words are useless. 
The eye must look, and look, and look, and yet have but a poor 
conception of the reality. Here in our own beloved country, 
where a few years ago, raged a protracted war for national exis- 
tence, all the records, of national prosperity have been surpass- 
ed, and the fancies of a More and a Plato found to be scarcely 
beyond the truth. When we cast our eyes back, we are aston- 
ished at the mighty strides we have taken ; when we cast them 
forward we are amazed at the prospect that seems to crowd on 
the vision. True we are not without difficulties, present and pros- 
pective ; but they are evils inherent in the system. It brought 
tears of sorrow from our fathers, that they were not permitted, 
by the counsels of an all-wise Providence, to preserve the plan 
free from them. Let us not, on this joyful day, by complaining 



23 

of these evils, arraign their wisdom ; or, by indulging in dismal 
forebodings, start afresh the closed fountains of their grief Let 
us rather, by opening our hearts to the great lessons inculcated 
by their actions, learn from them how to bear cheerfully, pru- 
dently, wisely, with the difficulties from which they could not re- 
relieve us. Let nothing dampen the ardor of our gratitude to 
those men who beheld their nation a dependant province, and 
permitted their children to behold it, in sixty years, powerful, 
prosperous, honored in every land and on every sea ; the freest, 
the happiest, the best land for freemen, that the sun, in his 
rounds, has ever been able to find. 




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